The Old Log Cabin In The Dell

Title: The Old Log Cabin In The Dell, Song & Chorus By: C.A. White, Published By: White, Smith & Company, Location: Boston, Year: 1875

White, Smith & Company (est. 1874) was a music publishing firm in Boston, Massachusetts. It issued sheet music and published industry journals, notably the monthly Folio.

Title: My Ole Home In Alabama Fo’ De War, Composed By: H.P. Danks, Published By: G.D. Russell & Company, Location: Boston, Year: 1875

Hart Pease Danks (6 April 1834 – 20 November 1903) was a musician who specialized in composing, singing and leading choral groups. He is best known for his 1873 composition, Silver Threads Among the Gold.

Title: Oh Henry! Mammy Surely Paddled Me, Words & Music By: Harold Dixon, Published By: Dixon-Lane Pub. Co., Location: St. Louis/Chicago, Year: 1918

Title: Mammy Blossom’s ‘Possum Party, Words By: Arthur Fields, Music By: Theodore Morse, Published By: Leo. Feist, Location: New York, Year: 1917

Arthur Fields (August 6, 1888 – March 29, 1953) was an American singer (baritone) and songwriter.

Theodore F. Morse (April 13, 1873 – May 25, 1924) was an American composer of popular songs.

Leopold Feist (1 March 1869 New York City – 21 June 1930 Mount Vernon, New York) founded and ran a music publishing firm bearing his name that — in the 1920s, at the height of the golden age of popular music — was among the seven largest publishers of popular music in the World.

Title: Coons In The Cottonfield, Written By: J.W. Wheeler, Published By: Atlantic Music Co., Location: Boston, Year: 1898

Title: That Coon’s Just As Happy’s Tho’ He Had His Right Mind, Words By: Jack Everett Fay, Music By: James B. Oliver, Published By: M. Witmark & Sons, Location: New York/Chicago, Year: 1899

Witmark & Sons was a leading publisher of sheet music for the United States “Tin Pan Alley” music industry.

The firm of Marcus Witmark & Sons was established in New York City in 1886. The father, Marcus Witmark, was the legal head of the company; but from the beginning it was run by his sons Isidore, Julius, and Jay, who were under legal age when the company started (ranging in age from 17 to 14 years old). They started out publishing their own compositions. They were adept at plugging songs, and within a few years were publishing the works of such composers as Victor Herbert, George M. Cohan, Ben Harney and John Walter Bratton.

Witmark originated the practice of giving free “professional copies” of their new music to famous and established singers and bands, which proved so successful an advertising method that it was copied by the rest of the music publishers.

When the International Copyright Law was passed in 1891, Witmark pioneered publishing versions of British music in the United States and arranging for American hits to be published in the UK.

Title: Am Any Ob De Angels Black?, Words & Music By: Charles W. Springer, Published By: Hitchcock Publishing Company, Location: New York, Year: 1900

Title: The Darktown Swell, Music By: O.E. Sutton, Published By: Enterprise Music Supply Co., Location: New York, Year: 1899

Title: Sweet Dreams, Words By: Walter Smart, Music By: Harry Wellmon, Published By: Howley, Haviland & Dresser, Location: New York, Year: 1903

Harry Malcolm Wellmon (May 15, 1883 – July 17, 1945) sometimes known as H. W. Wellmon, was an African-American jazz age conductor and composer who lived in London, England. He was part of the song-writing team of Carlish and Wellmon.

In 1893 Paul Dresser formed a partnership with Frederick Haviland and Patrick Howley as a silent partner in Howley, Haviland and Company. The New York City firm published Dresser’s works, while he recruited new songwriters and encouraged singers to perform the company’s songs. Dresser stopped traveling and performing during the summer so he could focus on composing music and promoting the new company. In 1894 he invited his younger brother Theodore to join him in New York. Theodore went to work for Howley, Haviland and Company as editor of the firm’s trade journal, Ev’ry Month, which promoted their newest songs. Theodore later became a nationally-known novelist. During their time together in New York, the brothers frequented Broadway theaters, popular restaurants, and hotel bars as well as the city’s brothels and saloons. In 1905 the “Howley and Dresser” partnership declared bankruptcy.

Title: The Darky’s Dream, Composed By: G.L. Lansing, Arranged By: Theo. Moses Tobani, Published By: Carl Fischer, Location: New York, Year: 1890

Theodore Moses Tobani (2 May 1855 − 12 December 1933) was a composer of popular music. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, and began studying violin when he was five years old. The family moved to the United States, where he attended the Rivington School in New York, but they returned to Europe when it became evident that Theodore was a musical prodigy. He was a concert violinist by the time he was 10. The family returned to the U.S. in 1870, and Theodore took positions as a violinist in several groups including Simpson’s Theatre in Philadelphia, Wallack’s Theatre, and several others.

His best known composition was “Hearts and Flowers”, which he composed in half an hour in 1893, and which continued to sell more than 100,000 copies annually until the end of his life. He was so prolific that his publisher, Carl Fischer, insisted that he use multiple pseudonyms; Fischer was concerned that nobody would believe how much Tobani was composing. Another popular work was “Our Little Nestling”, written in 1883 for Mrs. Lester Wallack, for which he was paid $35.

 Tobani was also a real estate dealer and owned property in Queens. He died on 12 December 1933; seven children survived him, but his wife, Helen, had died some time earlier.

Carl Fischer Music is a major sheet music publisher that was based in New York City’s East Village since 1872. The company has since moved to the Wall Street area in 2013. After 140 years, the company remains a family-owned business, publishing both performance and educational music for students, teachers, and virtuosos. Carl Fischer’s composers and editors give clinics and sessions all over the country, and the company claims to serve more than 1400 retailers around the world.